The Chronicles of Yanmana
by Charred Brick
Summary: A last-minute group of young Pokémon trainers must band together to protect the world when the Yanmana Cannon - a cannon created to control legendary Pokémon and harness their abilities to quash the evil groups of the Pokémon world - is seized by a new criminal organisation whose members are beneath everybody's noses.
1. Chapter 1

Scizor lowered its claw, the pale purple glow dissipating into the crimson red sheen common for Scizor. It stood tall, taking two steps back as it focused its fearsome eyes on the unmoving form of its opponent. The Primeape stayed completely still as it was face down in the rain, the raindrops moving quickly and filling up the small crater of the arena that Primeape found itself in.

'Primeape, no!' The Pokémon's trainer, Marcus wailed. He sighed and slicked his wet, fair hair back, blue eyes looking past his baggy orange hoody to the three unused pokéballs on his belt. Whoever he next chose to battle would determine the fate of this wager. He looked around at his surroundings, desperate to find something that he could have one of his Pokémon use to his advantage. There wasn't much; the arena itself was outside, hence the non-existent shelter from the rain. It was built into a forest; any trees that were in the space of the arena left no trace now. It was roughly fifty by twenty metres and although the paint marks were worn, they were still perfectly visible.

'Are you ready?' the opposing trainer, Michelle asked. She cocked her head to the side innocently, hiding one foot behind the other and tilting her pink parasol on its side. She was wearing a tight black jumper with a puffy, ivy green cotton scarf wrapped comfortably round her neck. On her legs was a pair of black tights that reached up and met a tartan skirt.

Marcus looked up at Michelle and met her gaze with his own. He couldn't believe that his seventeen-year-old adversary, Michelle was still so far ahead of him, even after all of his training. He had worked so hard to evolve his Mankey, and it had paid off when it took on the Kanto Gym Leader Brock: Primeape took all three of his Pokémon on without need for a substitution. That time, he had won his fourth badge in his 'mix-up gym challenge'.

This was not a gym battle, but it may as well have been. In the detached region they were in, _Grecion_, one had to pay to compete in their Gym Challenge. The tickets were ridiculously expensive, and thus most of the competitors won them in weekly lotteries. The most recent winner, Aaron, wasn't a Pokémon trainer and thus decided to host a small, unofficial tournament to bring about somebody to win the ticket. This battle, between two childhood friends, was the final.

'Yeah.' Marcus said calmly, grabbing a great ball from his pocket. 'I'm ready.' He hurled the great ball into the air and after a few seconds of flight it reached its peak, opening up and emitting a liquid red aura which headed straight toward the ground. The great ball flew back into Marcus hand while the aura took the shape of, and eventually formed into, an Electabuzz.

'Alright, now you're finally done, it's time to finish-' Michelle said, but she was cut off mid-sentence by Marcus' yelling.

'Electabuzz, discharge!' Marcus yelled, taking a few steps back. He glanced up and let out a sigh of relief as he saw the thick leaves of the tall tree he now stood below. He was no longer in contact with the rain.

The Electabuzz roared with pride, an energetic blue aura building up around it as it released various jolts of similarly coloured electricity loose into the surroundings. Ordinarily, Michelle's Scizor would have been able to avoid this attack. But in these conditions, it had only one option…

'Protect.' Michelle said calmly, straightening her parasol to ensure that the volt-charged rain made no contact with her. Scizor obeyed, a shimmering sphere of transparent white, purple and blue energy enveloping it, looking much like a giant bubble. The discharge attack simply surrounded the sphere, but didn't manage to get through.

'Protect shields your Pokémon from the opponent's next move.' Marcus said calmly.

'Well stated, genius.' Michelle replied sarcastically, brushing a hand through her silky black hair.

'But you can't use it two times in succession. So this time you'll have to dodge my move, or tank it.' Michelle hesitated to reply, realising at once what Marcus was planning.

'Scizor!' Michelle roared, stretching her hand forward. 'Use night slash! _Destroy_ him!' Scizor blasted forward with a blurring speed, the sphere of protection simply fading away with the electricity around it.

'Not fast enough.' Marcus said, taking another step back and bringing his arm to obscure his eyes. 'Electabuzz. Thunder. Full voltage.'

Electabuzz slammed his fists together, once again roaring as he prepared to attack. He ignored the fact that Scizor was soaring toward himself with a frightening speed. If Michelle had ordered to Scizor attack Electabuzz before he let his discharge loose, Scizor would have arrived first. However, the powerful force of the discharge, although not damaging Scizor in the slightest, had forced him back several feet. That gave Electabuzz plenty more time to attack. Michelle glared with anger as she finally realised that this moment was planned. As she watched her Scizor take the full, rain-empowered force of Electabuzz' deadly thunder, she realised that Marcus had subconsciously planned this moment so that Michelle would lower her guard…inevitably leaving a window to take out Scizor, her most prized Pokémon.

'Scizor,' Michelle said stubbornly, holding up her pokéball. 'Return.' Scizor returned to its pokéball.

'What's that tone for?' Marcus asked, mockingly cocking his head to the side, like Michelle had only seconds earlier.

'I can't believe you'd sacrifice your only two Pokémon just for this moment.'

'You're completely wrong.'

'How?!'

'Well,' Marcus began, smiling. 'One, they were not sacrificed. You took them out fairly, and, two,' Marcus raised his great ball, gently pressing the button in the middle, causing a red aura to be emitted from it and surround Electabuzz before liquefying him and returning him to his mobile home. Michelle's eyes widened in horror.

'You only took out one!' Marcus yelled, hurling a pokéball into the air. A Ludicolo was released from it, which instantly began dancing with life.

'What?!' Michelle roared, shock all over her face. 'Your Ludicolo was taken out with my Scizor's _razor wind_!' Marcus simply shook his head and smiled.

'No.' Marcus replied, looking up at the heavy rain. 'He took a lot of damage, but he was still just about able to fight. But, do you remember the last move I had him cast before I returned him?' Michelle's eyes drifted to the ground as she struggled to remember. Marcus grinned as he saw the shock in them as she remembered.

Michelle looked up to the sky and spoke. 'Rain dance…!'

'That's right. And what's my Ludicolo's ability? Would you like to hazard a guess?' Marcus said, still smiling.

'…Rain Dish.'

'That is also correct.'

Michelle couldn't believe the level of this young boy's deception. He knew that her team was superior, so he made it a battle of the minds…a battle he was currently winning. 'So you had your Ludicolo use rain dance as he was about to be felled, so he could heal himself just enough to continue fighting?' She asked calmly, steeling herself.

'Yes.' Marcus replied, looking down at his perky Ludicolo. As every second passed his dance became that more lively; feet raised just that little bit higher; hands opened just that bit more cheerfully. Yes, this Ludicolo was naturally gifted in recovering quickly with his Rain Dish ability.

'Now, would you kindly choose your next Pokémon?' Marcus asked, gesturing to the field. Michelle complied silently, hurling a Pokéball forward. The Pokémon released met Ludicolo with a menacing glare.

Michelle's Pidgeotto flexed out its wings, flapping them a couple of times in quick succession with a hardy vigour. Its feathers shimmered in the heavy rain, the rain drops glistening as they rebounded off of the powerfully thrusted wings.

'Pidgeotto, one-shot him before he can get to full health! Air slash!' Michelle called, calm returning to her tone. Pidgeotto soared up a few feet into the rain, flapping its wings vigorously. From the winds created by the motion, numerous light blue, v-shaped slices of energy which all sped towards Ludicolo in v-formation, like a flock of birds fleeing from a predator.

'Same strategy as when we were in Dewford?' Marcus asked as the air slashes soared towards his dancing Ludicolo. 'You really don't think much of us, do you? Ludicolo, nature power.'

Ludicolo stopped dancing immediately, clasping his hands and staring down at them with a deep focus.

'Hah!' Michelle shouted. 'Your Ludicolo won't have enough time to defend against the air slash! It's way too fast!' But Michelle was to be astonished. Ludicolo opened his hands slowly, a small white sphere appearing in between. He aimed it towards the air slashes, and to Michelle's surprise, they did not hit Ludicolo. They simply revolved around the sphere for a few seconds in an elegant dance before being assimilated by it.

'What?!' Michelle yelled, her eyes wide with fear. The sphere was now a liquid blue, filled with the power of not only the surroundings, but of Michelle's Pidgeotto too.

'Fire!' Marcus yelled and Ludicolo obeyed, jumping up with a charming pizazz and firing the powerfully large blue sphere of watery energy towards Pidgeotto.

'Dodge it, Pidgeotto!' Michelle yelled, her voice evidently nervous. Pidgeotto complied, twisting side over side three times in the air, only narrowly avoiding the liquid sphere as it soared by like a bullet, and collided with the branch of a nearby tree. It exploded in a flurry of lacerating water, slicing seven branches off and leaving them to fall to their doom.

'Ludicolo, now!' Marcus yelled. Michelle was in the middle of a sigh of relief, struggling to realise that Ludicolo had already leapt to Pidgeotto's side as it slowly recovered from its mid-air manoeuvre. '_Blizzard_!'

Ludicolo once again clasped his hands, leaning toward Pidgeotto on one foot as he prepared to end this brief battle. He thrusted his palms out with a cheeky 'Colo!' as if gesturing goodbye. From his palms erupted a large blizzard; numerous small blobs of snow all being carried by a cold, vicious wind. Pidgeotto was helpless but to be swept up by the blizzard, the blobs of snow colliding with it head on and sending it tumbling on to the ground.

Pidgeotto rolled over, eyes squeezed shut in pain. It had taken on a pale blue hue due to the blizzard, and it was now shivering ever so slightly.

'Return, Pidgeotto.' Michelle ordered, the felled bird returning to its pokéball. Michelle kissed the ball, holding it against her chest for a second before attaching it to her belt solemnly, and grabbing hold of another pokéball.

Michelle glanced up at Ludicolo. He had danced his way back to a few feet in front of Marcus, the only reason for Ludicolo not being closer being the rain trickling into his dish and nourishing his body. _He's turned the tables on me, so well_. She thought to herself. _It was one against three only a few moments ago… Now it's my one against his two. This next strike has to take Ludicolo out_.

'Go, Alakazam!' Michelle roared, tossing a pokéball forward into the rain. The Alakazam that emerged did nothing interesting. No entry dance, no battle cry, it simply stared at Ludicolo with its deep black eyes.

'Psycho cut!' Michelle called, swinging her parasol to the side. Suddenly the rain didn't matter. The light frost of the morning cold didn't matter. The only thing that mattered was crushing Marcus' team into the ground.

'Hidden power!' Marcus yelled. The two Pokémon at once moved to prepare their moves. Alakazam's spoons gained a luminescent purple aura as it pulled one arm back and slashed forward with sharp concentration, before doing the same with its other arm. The result was two similar crescent-shaped slashes that streamed straight toward Ludicolo at an alarming rate. Alakazam made no effort to preserve the surroundings, instead having the tips of the slashes slice through the earth to preserve their accuracy at the sacrifice of some speed. The mud was simply sliced, leaving only a large, thin line where the slices had travelled.

'Oh Arceus that's fast!' Marcus yelled, flinching. Ludicolo aimed its palms towards the slashes, a white sphere gathering in between, but it was too slow. The two slashes impacted almost at the same moment, causing an explosion that scattered a cloud of thick purple and grey soot across the battlefield. Michelle brought her parasol across her torso, shielding herself from the smoke while Marcus could only raise a sleeve and look away as he was enveloped by the smoke.

Marcus retched as his body forced him to reject the foul-smelling smoke, holding his chest as he struggled to continue standing tall.

'The smoke too much for you?' Michelle taunted from across the battlefield. 'Alakazam, move it.' Suddenly the smoke was enveloped by a pale purple aura which tore it in two, dragging the two masses of smoke aside before dissipating them. At the centre of the power was Alakazam, spoons raised, and eyes glowing a bright turquoise.

Marcus cleared his throat, running his hair out of his face and recoiled as he saw his Ludicolo flat on his back, eyes wide open. Marcus returned the carefree Pokémon to his pokéball without a word, grabbing Electabuzz' pokéball once again and releasing him into the battlefield.

Michelle raised her parasol above her head once again, twirling it slowly, back and forth and watching the raindrops frolic as they were hurled from the surface of the circular object. She nuzzled her chin deep into her scarf, sighing and watching as her breath was condensed in the air, before vanishing before her eyes.

Marcus stared hard at Michelle's Alakazam, who was staring right back at him. His eyes were incredibly challenging, and put Marcus on edge. It looked like it'd rather strike Marcus than his own Pokémon. That was when Alakazam smiled.

Marcus recoiled slightly. _Did it read my thoughts…?_ He asked himself, and the Alakazam's smile widened_. What a devious Pokémon. I bet he knows what move I'm going to make before I choose it myself. This will be tricky._

'Are you ready?' Michelle asked, panting slightly. The cold and the tension of this battle had got to her, just like it had Marcus.

'Yes.' Marcus replied, standing tall once more. Electabuzz mimicked his master, small jolts of electricity dancing by his antennae.

'Come at me with everything you've got, Marcus.' Marcus nodded, closing his eyes with a brief smile. Still as tough as ever.

'Sir, how are the readings looking?' One of Takada's aides asked.

'Forgive me for using a cliché,' another aide replied, beaming with joy. 'But they're actually pretty perfect. At the rate this is going, we should be able to fire by Friday, or Sunday the latest.'

'Three days, you think?' Takada said, strolling up to the aides.

'Yes.'

'That's brilliant.' Takada looked up at the painting above the screen, practically the one part of this building that wasn't mechanical. It was one of the three legendary Pokémon Dialga, Palkia and Giratina attacking what looked like a Kyogre shaped submarine. There were many men painted onboard who were wearing strange white and blue striped pirate outfits. They all had a look of terror on their eyes as their ship was being torn apart.

'Soon, we'll finally be able to bring peace to this world. We won't have to rely on little ten-year-old kids named after colours to take care of the scum of this world.' Takada said, smiling. Takada was an honest man. Or at least, he had honest intentions. But he was willing to do almost anything to achieve them. That's why, forty-one years down the line, he was right here, preparing a machine with power to change the world drastically. He looked fairly young for his age – his face was still youthful, and his shaggy, jet black hair had no signs of being dulled by age just yet. He towered above his two aides, although in fairness, they were pretty small. Today he was wearing a large brown trench coat over his office gear, and he held his black bowler hat in his hand. Having just entered from the rain, he was almost soaked. The wettest areas seemed to be his shoulders, chest and of course, his hat. He tapped the hat three times before holding it up in front of his face, and a mechanical arm extended from one of the dull blue walls and took the hat from him, retracting before becoming limp.

Takada placed one hand on each of the aides' shoulders and stared hard at the screen in front of him with a confident smile. 'Gentlemen, just remember, even though this is almost complete…not a word of this is spoken outside of this building. Not to family or friends alike. Understood?' he said.

'Understood.' The two aides said in unison, not even looking back at their employer to acknowledge his brief gaze.

'Good. I'll see you gentlemen in two days to see how the launch is coming along.' One of the aides nodded. The other turned to look at Takada.

'Where are you going, Professor Takada?' he asked.

'I have to go into the Frenzied Forest. My son's staying over at his Grandmother's house for a few nights and I'm going to bring them all back to witness the launch.' Takada replied.

'But sir, I thought you said nobody else should know about this?'

'They don't know.' Takada rolled his eyes. 'But I'll want them to witness the what I call 'surprise' when it finally happens. I can easily say that we're going to be having a fireworks display or something.'

'That's true, Professor. I might do the same with my family.' Takada chuckled, patting the aide on the back.

'Of course you should!' Takada said heartily. 'Lighten up, this isn't evil we're plotting; it's justice!' Takada turned and strolled out before either of the two aides could reply, still chuckling to himself ever so slightly.

'Hand over the key and I won't hurt you.' A stern voice said. Takada turned to look at the man who had spoken. His outfit was all too familiar. Black trousers; grey boots; white belt; white gloves; black paper boy hat; and of course, black jumper with a crimson, capital 'R' displayed across it. He was being threatened by a Rocket Grunt.

'Excuse me?' Takada replied angrily, raising a brow.

'You heard me!' the grunt roared, his Golbat emerging from behind his back. 'Give me the key to the machine now, or I'll force you to!'

'Blaze, Blast Burn.' Takada said calmly. The Rocket Grunt looked around sceptically, wondering who the tall man was talking to. He found out soon enough. A Typhlosion burst from the corner of the other end of the corridor, stopping and glaring at the Rocket Grunt before breaking into a sprint on all fours towards the man.

'Golbat!' The Rocket Grunt squealed, taking a few hasty steps back. 'Hyper beam!' the Golbat's large mouth was lit up with a hot white as it prepared to obey its master, flapping its wings furiously as it moved towards Typhlosion.

'Rackaa!' The Typhlosion roared as it slammed its legs down into the ground, falling into a crouch as the air around it boiled with heat. The ground and walls by Typhlosion began to burn an orange-red, and they seemed to distort under the heavy heat of Typhlosion's body.

It fired when Golbat was within twenty metres, its body shuddering as it spat out a large blast of crimson flames towards the Golbat. The attack connected instantly, the Golbat screeching as it felt the heat of a thousand flames envelop its front and blast it back.

'No!' The Rocket Grunt yelled, taking a few more paces back. 'Oh, no! No no no no no no no!' he turned and fled as his Golbat soared towards him, the heat from the attack causing the whole corridor to waver and distort as the blast flew past.

'Oh, what lovely earrings!' Emily said, putting the pair of Luvdisc-shaped earrings to her ears and looking into the mirror. 'They're so beautiful! How much for them?' She looked at the owner of the stall, a miserable old lady who was wearing nothing but a pink skirt and a large, overly-sized blue hoodie with the hood pulled over her face.

'Three-hundred pokédollars, honey.' The woman replied, disgust in her tone.

'Oh…' Emily looked down, gesturing at the earrings. 'Can we not come to a deal?'

'Yeah.' The old lady looked down at Emily's Medicham, who blushed once it realised that it was being stared at and hid behind Emily's slender legs.

'You can have 'em and those cascade earrings as well if you gimme your Medicham,' The old woman sneered, laughing afterwards.

'No way!' Emily yelled, dropping the earrings back into the rectangular wooden box and hugging her Medicham to her chest. 'He's not for sale!'

'Then you can get lost before I-' the woman was cut off by the sound of glass smashing. The three all turned to look instantly at the Yanmana building, and gasped as a blast of flames erupted from one of the windows, the heat so vast that even at that distance they still felt it.

'Wait, is that-?!' Emily asked, but she knew. At the receiving end of the flames was a scorched man wearing all black and white, save for the red 'R' across his jumper, with a Golbat right by his back. He was flying right towards them.

'Oh nooooo!' The stall owner screamed, trying to tug at her stall to move it.

'Medicham, psychic!'

The stall owner slammed her eyes shut as she sprawled herself unflatteringly over her stall, trying to protect her livelihood. After a few seconds of silence, she looked up and recoiled with surprise.

'You. You saved my stall?!' The stall owner said, astonished. The Rocket Grunt and Golbat were floating above Medicham in a daze. Medicham stared at them with blue eyes before relaxing, its eyes losing its glow as it lost interest and dropped the two on the floor.

'Thank you so much, honey!' The stall owner said with a smile. 'I owe you everything, this stall is my life! Take the earrings! Heck, take whatever you darn well please!' Emily smiled and jumped up and down, clapping and squealing. She took the earrings without a second thought and looked to Medicham.

'What do you want, Max?' she asked, staring at him. Max the Medicham simply stared down at a small piece of purple, crystalline rock.

'That's a rare treasure.' The stall owner replied, following Max' gaze. 'Your Max is a real clever 'un to seek after that. It's all the way from Hoenn. This treasure was two-thousand pokédollars…but for the saviour of my stall, you may take it, free of charge.' Emily smiled and beckoned Max to take the rock, and it did.

'I'll see you later.' Emily said, patting Max on the head and turning away.

'Goodbye. And again, thank you!' the stall owner said.

Emily stepped over the seared Rocket Grunt, treading gently around him as she stared at the smoke rising from him. If he was anybody else, she'd be rushing to help him. But he was from a despicable team that wanted to steal other people's Pokémon – he didn't deserve her help.

'These are so lovely.' Emily said, gazing down at her new Luvdisc-earrings and putting them in her Mudkip head-shaped satchel. She fiddled around in there afterwards, before eventually pulling out her Pokégear. Hers was a solid pink, rather than the conventional white with red for girls. She opened it as it vibrated, staring down at it to see who was calling her.

'Hmm, it's Brandon Hayabusa.' Emily said, leaving her thumb just above the answer button. She looked up to the sky and put a finger on her chin. 'Who's Brandon Hayabusa?' Max brought his palm to his face, before nudging Emily's arm slightly and looking up at her.

'What is it, Max?' Emily asked, looking down at him. Before she could react, his eyes glowed the familiar bright turquoise of psychic Pokémon and she was somewhere else. Emily looked about and realised where she was fairly quickly: she was in the town of _Arieon_. She saw herself and her Medicham get stopped by a tall brunette boy who was holding a Meowth between his arms. She wasn't near enough to hear what they were saying, but for some reason, she understood them. The boy suddenly whipped out a blue object: his Pokégear. He began typing in slowly with one hand, while looking back up at Emily in between every three numbers. He was taking her Pokégear number. Suddenly the image shuddered and turned into a blue wind, which brushed around Emily before vanishing into her mind.

'Oh, cute Meowth guy!' Emily said, instantly accepting the call and putting it to her ear. 'Don't do that to me again without warning, Max!'

'Uh, what?' The boy on the other side of the call, Brandon replied, startled. Max looked away with a sigh.

'Oh, sorry! Hey, how are you?'

'Yeah, I'm alright…is this a bad time?'

'No, no! I was just talking to my Max – you remember Max, right?'

'Your cute little Medicham? I do! How is he?'

'He's doing great; he saved a market stall today and earned me some free earrings!' Emily patted Max on the head and began walking down the narrow stone road on the way to her home. The Yanmana building was on one side – that marked the industrial side of Yanmana, the town they were in. Beside it were numerous small factories that were heaving copious amounts of soot into the air above. To the other side were many small cottages and houses. They were evidently made at a much earlier date than the buildings on the industrial side of town: most of them were lacking in any form of metal in their core designs. The path itself was dotted with trees on each side, and from the branches of those trees hung many small torches, which served to light the way in the darkest of nights.

'That's good to hear!' Brandon replied, joy in his voice.

'How is…Matt, was it?' Emily replied, nervousness on her face.

'Matt's doing very well, thanks. He's made a good recovery now and is very close to battling gyms!'

'Oh, that's so lovely! I remember when I saw him he looked quite weary. I'm so happy to hear that he's all okay.'

'Thank you.' Emily paused for a brief second to turn the corner, smiling as she no longer had any sight of the industrial side of the town. She preferred her rural, agricultural home side.

'So, what's up?' Emily asked, breaking the silence.

'Well,' Brandon said, hesitating. 'I was wondering if you wanted to come round for dinner.' Emily blushed.

'Tonight?'

'Yes…it's no problem if you can't, though.'

'No, no!' Emily grinned as her blush worsened: she was so happy that this conversation was over their Pokégears and not face to face.

'Umm…' Emily replied, looking down at Max. Max raised his eyebrows cheekily, causing Emily to blush even more. 'Hold on a second.' Emily lowered her Pokégear, glaring into the distance as she saw a shadowy figure watch her in the distance.

'Is everything okay?' Brandon asked as he heard Emily bring the Pokégear back to her face.

'No, it's nothing. So, yes, I'd love to! What time?'

'Brilliant!' Brandon replied, sounding overjoyed. 'Well, we don't usually eat until around eight so if you'd like to come around then? My address is 48 Seawater Drive.' That made Emily even happier. Seawater Drive was not only less than a ten minute walk from her house, but it was more importantly not in the industrial side of town. So no soot in her face tonight.

'Sounds great! Can I bring Max?' Emily said, now overjoyed as well.

'Of course!' Brandon replied. 'Matt would love to meet Max now that he's feeling well again.'

'Okay, that's great then. I'll be there for eight.'

'Okay. See you later!'

'Bye bye!' Emily disconnected the call and put her Pokégear in her bag at once, looking back into the distance. The shadowy figure was gone. Did she imagine him, just now?

Emily shook her head, blinking furiously. 'Must have.' She muttered to herself before continuing on home.

'Electabuzz, thunder!' Marcus roared, extending his hand toward his Electabuzz. Electabuzz complied with a zealous roar, beating his own chest as he released a flurry of vibrant cyan volts into the rain. Once again they were conducted by the rain, and once again they immediately went through the raindrops and straight to Alakazam.

'Sunny day.' Michelle commanded calmly. Alakazam waited until the thunder attack was seconds away from striking before raising his right spoon towards the sky. The spoon glowed a bright orange and the rain instantly stopped as a laser of tangerine light soared towards the clouds above from the spoon, separating them with ferocity.

'Now dodge it, Alakazam.' Michelle ordered, her voice still completely calm. Marcus thought that he had this; although the rain had been cleverly dispelled, it didn't stop the fact that the thunder attack was still right in front of Alakazam's face. It had somehow slipped his mind, however, that Alakazam was not the kind to sit around and take attacks.

There was a blue of blue rectangles that seemed to be etched into the space ahead of Alakazam as he himself vanished. The thunder attack collided with the ground, the heat from it scorching the mud below and causing the water in it to evaporate straight away.

'Where'd he go?!' Marcus yelled, looking around with fear. His question was soon answered; Alakazam reappeared right behind Alakazam, legs crossed as he floated in the air at an angle.

'Electabuzz!' Marcus screamed. 'Behind you! Use iron tail!'

'Alakazam, use mega punch!' Michelle yelled, and the two attacks clashed less than a second later. One was a metallic silver tail, backed with the energy of a hundred generators; the other was a yellow fist wielding a tough spoon, backed with the strength of a hundred mighty minds. The two clashed and created a large explosion that scattered another cloud of smoke and dust across the battlefield.

Marcus pulled his arm across his face again, squinting as the dirt tried to get into his eyes. 'Electabuzz, don't give up! Discharge!'

'He was taken out that easily?' Slime asked, staring with amazement at the small handheld monitor in front of him.

'Yes.' Gunge replied, switching the black monitor off and putting it in her small backpack. 'The leader of that company isn't a pushover; he's a very elite Pokémon trainer.'

'Hmm…' Slime placed his chin on his fist, looking down from his Honchcrow at the small half industrial, half agricultural town of Yanmana. 'If we send a whole host if infantry it'll be pretty apparent before we even get to him. We'll have to ambush him before he manages to activate the machine and take the key then.'

'Good idea, Slime. Do you want me to send some of my Pokémon to watch over him?'

'Yes, yours will be the best for that. Send about two or three and have one follow him home, and the other two scout out the building for anything interesting.'

'Okay.' Gunge reached for her belt and grabbed three Pokéballs before tossing them all into the sky ahead of her, making sure to release them by the cover of one of the factories.

'Gengar, Banette, Shuppet. You heard what he said. Go do it, now!' Gunge ordered and the three Ghost Pokémon sunk into the ceiling of the factory without further orders.

'You know, I'm wondering why they haven't done anything about our circling the town.' Slime said, looking down as he passed the Yanmana police station. It was almost as tall as the factories, and almost two times as wide as them. He was sure that they had a capable enough police force inside there.

'They're probably trying to avoid any form of confrontation right now. I'm betting they're still week after we had the Rhydon corps ransack their measly excuse of a town.' Gunge said, brushing a hand through her silky, waist-length lime hair arrogantly.

'You mean, try to ransack their town. They barely made it past the exit of the forest before they were forced to flee.' Gunge replied with a scowl.

'Well, if we'd attacked from the forest and from the sea like I suggested, then perhaps he would have gotten further.'

'No. We don't want to invade them just yet. Any sign of invasion and they most probably would have ceased construction on the Yanmana cannon.'

'That's true.' Gunge looked away in bitter defeat.

'Alakazam, stop him with psychic!' Michelle ordered, and Alakazam was quick to oblige, recovering from his mid-air flight with only slight cosmetic damage. He crossed his spoons together and enveloped himself with a violet aura as the tentacle-like bolts of electricity flew towards him. Just as they were about to make contact, he struck his spoons together, pulling his arms viciously to the side. The bolts moved in unison with his arms, flailing wildly to the side before dissipating into nothing.

'Alright then, we'll just try something up close! Fire punch!' Marcus roared, looking up towards the sunset. The sky was still shining brightly due to Alakazam's sunny day.

Electabuzz sped towards Alakazam furiously, right arm pulled back as a cloak of flames enveloped his fist.

'Focus blast!' Michelle roared. Alakazam put his spoons together once again, and a golden sphere of bright energy began to form between the two tips. Alakazam fired shortly after, thrusting both spoons towards Electabuzz with the sphere catapulting ahead.

'Electabuzz now, jump!' Marcus roared, and Electabuzz jumped within a second of Marcus finishing his command, soaring towards Alakazam with his flame-backed fist at the ready. The flames doubled in volume as Electabuzz roared, ready to deliver the final, burning blow.

BOOM! Another cloud of smoke appeared, but this one did not sweep the battlefield. Marcus looked on in shock and dismay as Electabuzz shot across the battlefield in his direction, scraping in the mud painfully and rolling over just in front of him, eyes squeezed shut. He was down.

'W-what?!' Marcus asked, blinking rapidly. 'H-how?!' He gestured to his Electabuzz, then to Alakazam, and back to his Electabuzz.

'What?' Michelle asked, taunting evident in her tone.

'Focus blast needs time to recharge, so how did it strike Electabuzz with another move?!'

'Who said that Electabuzz was hit by a different move?' Marcus' jaw snapped wide open.

'Anyway, you fought well. You've grown so much, and I hope you've learned from this encounter as much as I have. I'm going to get the ticket now. I'll be challenging the Yanmana gym at 2pm sharp tomorrow. I hope you can make it.' Michelle said with a smile, lowering and closing her parasol. And with that, she turned and headed towards Yanmana, the forest being spread wide and tall; but the chimneys of the factories reaching further into the sky. Alakazam looked back at Marcus and smiled once again, but this smile was one of sincerity. As Marcus stood there, shocked and unmoving, he thought he heard a voice inside his head. "_Thank you for a great battle_" It seemed to say.

Marcus smiled, closing his eyes once again before staring Alakazam hard in the eyes. 'You're welcome.' He muttered, and Alakazam nodded and turned to follow Michelle. Marcus however, simply slumped next to Electabuzz and put a hand on his cheek, causing the latter's eyes to open slightly.

'You did a brilliant job, Electabuzz.' Marcus said with a weak smile. 'I'm sorry that I let you down… I should have seen that teleport combo coming and had you do an aerial flip or something.' He patted Electabuzz' stomach firmly. 'We'll get 'em next time, buddy.' Electabuzz smiled before closing his eyes, and Marcus returned him to his Pokéball.

Brandon strolled into the main entrance of the Yanmana police station, heading instantly for the front desk with Matt the Meowth following eagerly.

'Hello,' Janet, the receptionist said. She smiled up at Brandon with scarlet lips. 'How can I help?'

'Hello Miss Porter,' Brandon began, getting out his Pokégear and placing it on the smooth wooden desk. 'I'm here to see my dad, Officer Hayabusa.'

'Of course. He's on the third floor, in his office.' Brandon cocked an eyebrow.

'Aren't you going to check my identification?' Janet blinked and looked down at Brandon's Pokégear.

'Oh, no,' Janet replied, smiling. 'You've been here enough times for me to know that it's you. Go right ahead.' Janet's smile widened and she tilted her head to the side with a smile.

'Okay.' Brandon said cautiously, taking his Pokégear and putting it into the pocket of his jeans. 'Thanks.' He strolled towards the back door on Janet's left and waited for it to open automatically before walking through. Matt only narrowly made it past the wrath of the automatic closing of the doors.

'Third floor, hmm.' Brandon muttered to himself, heading down the dull, narrow grey corridor. There was nothing to it but a tiny window on his right every ten metres to let the light in. Even when it was coming close to dusk, the lights still weren't on: they were conserving their electricity. This had been on-going for about two weeks now. It was a town-wide rule that had become compulsory. Brandon had no clue why it had been drafted in so suddenly.

Brandon finally reached the only interesting part of this building: the ground slide. That's what he called it. They were seven by four metre steel plates that were on simple rails. Once the person or persons were on comfortable, the plate would begin sliding across the rails, taking them to their destination. Brandon's destination was the lift room which was only one ride forward.

The door opened and all three of the plates were readily docked. He stepped on the middle one and beckoned Matt to follow. Matt did, hastily, jumping on and gripping on to Brandon's leg.

'Oh, Matt!' Brandon said with a smile. 'It's not that scary!' The plate began to move fairly slowly, and it began moving through the glass tunnel. Brandon peered to his right, this time: last time he peered to his left. At first he saw one of the few large factories. It was shovelling soot into the atmosphere and for a slim second Brandon saw inside it through a slim hole in the steel walls: there were four-armed, muscular shadows that were shovelling some sort of mineral or rock from one pile into a large machine that had a bright, red-hot glow coming from the core.

'Okay, we're here Matt. The ride's over, for now.' Brandon said, patting Matt on the head. He stepped off of the plate onto the wide, steel platform and pressed the green button, which resulted in the door opening with a sleek screech.

Brandon and Matt stepped through and Brandon reached to press the call button for the lift in front but something grabbed his attention. He turned around, looking with an eerie look of confusion. 'Do you feel that, Matt?' Brandon asked. Matt looked up at Brandon with worried eyes and nodded, taking a step closer to him.

Brandon grabbed a Pokéball from his belt with great speed and chucked it forward. 'Rio, I choose you! Use your aura to survey the surroundings!' he said calmly. A small but fierce-looking Riolu emerged from the Pokéball, and it closed its eyes, its small antennae raising as it surveyed the area.

'Rio!' Rio called, pointing at the corner of the wall with wide open eyes.

'What is it, Rio?' Brandon asked, looking at the wall, then back at Rio. He saw nothing. Rio slowly lowered his hand, his antennae and head instantly slumping in a sulk.

'Don't worry about it, Rio.' Brandon said cheerfully, patting Rio's head. 'It was probably nothing.' Rio nodded with a weak smile and pushed on his own Pokéball, returning inside without any time for response.

'Hmmm…' Brandon said, deep in thought. The DING-DONG of the arriving lift behind him tore him away from any thoughts that he was currently processing. He turned around as the doors opened and strolled in with Matt, pressing the button with a "3" on it before looking down at the ground as the doors closed.


	2. Chapter 2: Demolishing Wings

Marcus sauntered into the Pokémon centre and headed straight to the front desk. He looked around; it was pretty empty. On the right there was one trainer, kneeling on the blue-tiled floor next to his Marill. He looked young, at least thirteen, and gave Marcus a quirky smile as he strolled past. As Marcus returned the smile with a courteous nod he looked to the side and saw a familiar face walking towards him.

'Hello!' the small girl said with a cheerful smile. She stopped a few inches away from Marcus and watch as he handed his Pokéballs to the front desk.

'Hello.' Marcus said to the girl, before turning to Nurse Joy. 'Hello.'

'Good evening, and welcome to the Pokémon centre.' Nurse Joy said. 'Would you like to rest your Pokémon?'

'Yes, please.'

'Okay, I'll just take your Pokéballs and call you when they're healed. Will you be staying the night?' Nurse Joy took the three Pokéballs from the desk and walked back to the healing machine, placing them in the free slots.

'If that's okay,' Marcus said, smiling at the girl next to him. Nurse Joy nodded and moved through the automatic white doors to the next room.

'How are you doing? It's Jessica, right?' Marcus said, turning to the brunette girl next to him.

'Yes, I'm good thanks. My team has fully recovered now! Yep, it's Jessica. And you're Marcus.' Jessica replied.

'Mhm, that's me.'

'So, you got to the final, right? How did it go?' Marcus looked to the side, sadness sweeping across his face.

'You lost, huh?' Jessica said, taking a couple of steps back and beckoning Marcus to follow. As he did, she led him through to the common room in the back of the Pokémon centre, where two more trainers were. One was a young blonde boy who was lying asleep on the large black sofa, with his Squirtle and small, red blanket on top of him. The other was an older blonde boy who was sat on the floor with his back against the sofa the younger boy was sleeping on, and a Dratini resting peacefully on his lap. There were two other large sofas, one red and one green, surrounding a large rectangular table with nothing on it but a few magazines.

'Yeah, Michelle beat me in the final one on one.' Marcus said with a sigh.

'Well that's better than having her wipe out your entire team with her front fighter, like she did with me.' Jessica replied, rolling her eyes.

'That's true.' Marcus paused for a second before noticing the solemn look in Jessica's eyes. 'You shouldn't feel sad that that happened. Michelle's one of the best trainers I've met.' He sighed. 'To be honest, I only managed to make it to a one on one my tricking her a couple of times.' Jessica chuckled and patted Marcus' stomach twice lightly.

'Thanks, Marcus.' Jessica said, looking up at him with her sea blue eyes. 'You've made me feel a lot better.' She strolled over to the green sofa and sat down, smiling at the older of the two boys sat down.

'Hiya,' Jessica said as she sat down. Marcus sat down next to her soon after.

'Hey,' The boy, Alex replied. 'Staying the night too?'

'Yeah. What's your reason?'

'My little brother Drew here is beginning his Pokémon journey her in Grecion, but we've come all the way from Kanto.'

'Wow! He's not doing the Gym Challenge here, is he? Because it's dead expensive!'

'It's okay.' Alex pulled out a wallet from the top pocket of his navy waistcoat and pulled a group of eight tickets from one of the sections of it. 'Got that covered.'

'Oh my!' Marcus said, recoiling. 'You have all eight tickets? You must be loaded!'

'Nope.' Alex replied, smiling as he put his wallet away and tapped the pocket twice. 'I got lucky.'

'How so?' Jessica asked, peering closer.

'Some rich guy challenged me to a battle in a drunken wager. If he won, I'd have to become his servant. If I won, I'd get the eight tickets for the eight gyms of Grecion.'

'Wow, those were some pretty scary terms…you must've felt pretty confident.'

'Well, as I said, he was drunk. His first move was getting his Electrode to self-destruct against my Gengar. He almost accused me of hacking when it didn't work.' Jessica and Marcus laughed.

'So, are you giving all of the tickets to your brother?' Jessica asked.

'Yep,' Alex said, looking back to his sleeping brother and patting his head lovingly. 'I was already halfway through my Gym Challenge so I thought, "why not?".'

'Wow, I wish I had an older brother like you!' Marcus said jokingly. 'What badges do you have?' Alex smiled cheekily and reached into his jacket pocket, revealing and opening his badge case. There were five badges.

'Amazing…' Jessica said as she and Marcus peered even closer.

'So you only have Katrina, Koga and Giovanni to defeat?' Marcus asked, and Alex nodded before putting his case away again.

'What about you guys? How many badges have you earned?' Alex asked.

'Well, I myself have just the three.' Marcus said, getting out his steel badge case. 'The Adorable badge from Aphrodion,' Marcus pointed to the pink, heart-shaped badge with two blue circles on it. 'The Fossil badge from Hephaestion,' he then pointed to the pale brown, spiral shaped badge. 'And the Crop badge from Demetrion.' He finally pointed to the badge that was shaped like three small green blades of grass.

'Those are some nice looking badges you have.' Alex said with a smile, before looking to Jessica. 'How about you?' Jessica blushed and pulled out her badge case and opened it reluctantly, showing only the one badge.

'I've just got the Adorable badge…I pretty much rushed here after getting that one.'

'It's a brilliant start. So, have you guys eaten?'

'Nope.'

'No.' Marcus said.

'Well, I'm about to order some dinner for us from Millie's Diner,' Alex began, showing the two a flamboyantly coloured leaflet for a brief second before placing it down. 'They mostly do burgers and ribs, would you like to join us?'

'Sure.' Marcus said, opening the leaflet and looking at the menu. 'Yeah, the stuff looks pretty good.'

'It is.' Jessica said, licking her lips. 'My family order from there at least once a month. I can't keep my hands off of their grilled Miltank burgers!'

'Alright well tell me what you want and I'll go order from the phone up front.' Alex said, leaning back. Jessica and Marcus sat on the floor and looked at the menu together.

'A date, eh?' Date said, smiling cheekily as he slowly swivelled from side to side in his office chair. He was leaning back lazily, something you wouldn't expect from the head of the Police Force.

'Yeah, I guess you could call it that, dad.' Brandon said as he scratched his head.

'Well, I'm guessing you want me out of the house tonight?'

'I'd rather you didn't come and embarrass me, yes…' Date bellowed, his laughter causing Brandon to flinch.

'It's fine. I'm staying here late anyway; there's an important case I'm working on.' Date said, leaning forward in his chair. He beckoned Brandon closer, and Brandon responded by shifting forward.

'This is strictly confidential so keep this a secret: there have been a large amount of reported cases of…' Date whispered, looking to both sides before leaning closer. 'Ninja Caterpies stealing people's bread.' Brandon instantly pulled back with an aggressive sigh.

'What?!' Date asked, hands raised to the side. 'It's very tough to handle.'

'I wish you'd take your job seriously for a change, dad!' Brandon roared before stepping back and heading towards the exit.

'It was just a joke, son; loosen up!'

'I'll see you later.' Brandon slammed the door behind himself and Matt, speeding off just in case Date decided to chase him.

'My son is so serious for his age…' Date turned and looked at the painting of his family on the wall. It had his wife, Megohime sat on a chair with Date and Brandon standing either side of her, with one hand on her shoulders. He sighed and revealed a cigar from one of the cabinets beneath his table, and lit it quickly as he stared at it, sighing once more and turning away.

'Dear Mew, this burger…' Marcus said as he swallowed his first bite, staring down at the Miltank burger he held between his hands. Alex, Jessica and Drew watched in silence, eagerly awaiting his critique. 'Is amazing! I can't believe how many times I've walked past this place without knowing how brilliant their food is! My life suddenly has meaning!' Marcus took another large bite.

'Good to hear!' Alex said.

'No surprise there.' Jessica said almost arrogantly.

'How's your burger going down, Drew?' Alex turned to Drew who simply gave him the thumbs up.

'So, what are you guys' plans for tomorrow?' Marcus said, looking around at everyone.

'I'm going to help train my mum's Pokémon.' Jessica said. 'She's been itching to teach her Vileplume and thinks that having it interact with mine will help it.'

'Wow, you have a Vileplume?' Alex asked.

'Yeah, I do. It's not the best battler, though…' Marcus chuckled.

'See, Marcus vouched for it. He saw how it used Sleep Powder on itself in the tournament.' Jessica said, looking away with shame.

'Wow. Well I guess sleep powder's pretty tough to aim, right..?' Alex said, trying to console Jessica.

'Thanks for that.'

'What other Pokémon do you have?'

Jessica was about to speak, but Marcus cut her off. 'Hold up!' He yelled. How about we show each other our Pokémon in a double battle?' He looked around with a grin.

'I like that idea.' Drew said with an innocent smile. 'I've never had a double battle before.'

'What'll the teams be?' Jessica asked, afraid that she'd be the last to be picked.

'You'll be with me.' Marcus said, glancing at Jessica with confidence.

'Okay.' Jessica smiled up at Marcus before blushing slightly.

'When do you want to do it?' Alex asked.

'Well…' Marcus said, looking at the clock. It was almost eight. They were in Spring now so it wouldn't be too dark, yet. 'We could do it after we finish, or it'd have to be some time in the future, seeing as we're all pretty much busy tomorrow.'

'I guess it'll have to be now. We were planning to move on to _Aphrodion_ tomorrow so yeah, if you're all up for it, let's do it now.'

'I'm up for it.' Jessica said.

'Let's do it.' Drew said. Marcus took another large bite from his burger.

'Alright, do you think we could use the local arena? I doubt anybody would be there at this hour.' Marcus said.

'Yeah, it should be fine. It's open to anyone until midnight.' Alex replied, turning to Drew. 'You've been working on your strategies, right?'

'Right!' Drew replied, patting his Squirtle on the head.

'Awesome. Then we'll go down in about thirty minutes.'

Brandon opened the door with a shaky hand, smiling as he saw Emily at the other side.

'Hey!' Emily said energetically.

'Hey Emily,' Brandon stepped back and opened the door, beckoning Emily in. 'Come in, come in.'

'Thanks.' Emily rushed in, shivering from the cold.

'It looks freezing out there.' Brandon said as he closed the door. 'Let me take your coat.'

'It is.' Emily replied, taking her black faux fur coat off and handing it to Brandon. 'Thanks.' Brandon took Emily's coat and hung it on the Sudowoodo-shaped coat hanger before leading her to the dining room. It was small, but cosy. There was a large red rug on the floor, with a four-seating table on top. The table had a diamond-shaped white napkin on top of it, and on the top of that to one side was a glass vase containing three roses.

'It's lovely and warm here!' Emily said snugly.

'Good! Please, take a seat. The meal's ready and waiting.' Brandon said, pulling up a chair.

'Thank you!' Emily sat down carefully, so as not to make a full of herself.

'By the way,' Brandon said, running to the kitchen next door. 'Did you bring Max?'

'I did. He's in his Pokéball. Would you like me to let him out?'

'Yeah. Matt!' Brandon whistled and there was a distant rustling sound. Seconds later and Matt the Meowth came sprinting through the kitchen on all fours, rushing to greet Emily.

'Hello there, Matt!' Emily said cheerfully, stroking Matt gently. She got out Max' Pokéball and released him. Max let out a delightful cheer as Matt hugged him and then led him away to the play room.

'Dinner is served.' Brandon said, bringing the two plates with their meals. He placed them down along with the cutlery before returning to the kitchen to get a bottle of lemonade and two glasses. There was steak and potatoes. 'Dig in!' He said with a smile, pouring their drinks and sitting down.

'I'm glad the stadium's still in the agricultural side of town.' Jessica said, breaking the silence as the gang strolled down the town-separating footpath.

'Me too.' Alex said, looking down at Drew. 'This one's not very good around the soot and whatnot. It affects his breathing negatively. Our family went to a tour of one of these factories a few years ago – the one that produces about forty percent of our Pokéballs.' Alex gulped. 'He almost didn't survive it.'

'It's good to see that he's alright, now.' Jessica put a consoling hand on Alex' shoulder and he smiled back weakly.

'As much as I hate soot,' Marcus began, staring up at one of the distant factories. 'I'm grateful for these factories. When I was a kid my father was out of work and my mother was working the maximum amount of hours, but it wouldn't cut it for our family; see, I have two more younger siblings who were about one, then. When the first factories opened they came with a lot of job opportunities and that's how my father got his job.'

'That is very true.' Alex replied, turning the corner. 'Okay, we're here.' The gang all stopped to peer inside the stadium before they went in.

'Wait…' Jessica said, blinking with surprise. 'There's someone in there!'

'Yeah!' Marcus said, running to the side door. He forced it open and ran towards the left-wing seats. There were four-hundred seats in total, spread in wings: the front and back wings had forty seats each, while the left and right wings had 110 each.

'Hey, you can't just interrupt them like that!' Alex said, standing by the door.

'Who cares, I need to see this!' Jessica yelled, squeezing past Alex and running to stand by Marcus. Drew followed, grinning up at his brother as he did so.

A battle was raging on between two trainers. One, Marco, was on the red side. He was a tall man who looked to be in his early twenties and had long, unkempt brown hair. He was wearing a large brown coat and black jeans, along with cowboy-style boots.

The other, Date, was wearing a long grey trench coat. He had a wide smile on his face as the battle continued. 'Staraptor, brave bird!' He yelled, and his Staraptor complied, flapping its wings three times and rising considerably into the air before soaring down towards Marco's Yanmega.

'Yanmega, psychic.' Marco called calmly. Staraptor went up in vermillion flames as it soared, which were extinguished the second Staraptor stopped descending and were replaced with a thick light blue aura.

A bright blue circle appeared in each of Yanmega's eyes and Staraptor stopped moving, its light blue aura dissipating immediately. Before Staraptor had any time to struggle it was slammed into the ground, causing an intense explosion of dirt and mud.

'Ancientpower.' Marco called.

'So relentless…' Marcus said as Yanmega's body took on a white hue before projecting an image of itself into the space in front of it and moulding it into a large sphere. It then thrusted it forward with the strength of its legs.

The ancientpower attack collided instantly with a felled Staraptor, the explosion causing another wide dust cloud to bloom and scatter dozens of fragments of rock in every direction.

'Ah!' Jessica wailed as she ducked down in evasion of the rocks. Alex turned to his brother Drew and pulled him into his chest before turning away as the dust cloud swept the whole of the stadium, seats and all. It didn't care who was in its path.

'Staraptor,' Date began calmly. 'Aerial ace.'

'What?!' Alex said with shock, struggling to see through the thick cloud of dust. 'It's still able to fight?!'

'More than that!' Jessica said, peering over the seat. 'It looks completely unfazed!'

'No way…'

Staraptor flexed his magnificent wings to the side, the gust of wind so powerful that it blasted the dust cloud away in a matter of seconds, at the sacrifice of Jessica's hair being blasted back and falling sloppily onto her face. She wasn't impressed.

White streaks of light began forming by the tips of Staraptor's wings, streaming down from them behind him as he began soaring towards a stationary Yanmega. His speed tripled and the streaks increased in number, now streaming down from the tip of Staraptor's beak.

'Psychic, Yanmega.' Marco commanded with utmost calm. The same pale blue rings appeared in Yanmega's eyes, but Staraptor did not alter his course. He was not flung to the side, or tossed painfully to the ground. His image just wavered for a split-second.

'An after-image?!' Marco yelled with shock, instantly turning around and looking up. There he saw Staraptor, soaring down towards Yanmega from the sky. 'This trick again? Yanmega, turn around and use-' but it was too late.

Staraptor's image wavered once again and there was a diagonal column of streaks of white light between Staraptor and Yanmega, and then suddenly Staraptor was connecting with Yanmega, as if he had teleported.

Yanmega was helpless to take the hit, grunting as Staraptor's shoulder found a comfortable place deep within its gut and sending it toppling end over end into the sky.

'Yan yaaaan!' Yanmega roared as it flipped into the sky, unable to do anything to halt its movement.

'Yanmega, hyper beam!' Marco bellowed. Yanmega created a purple sphere in its mouth that was laced with green lightning and fired it with a pulse of green energy. The beam itself was a darker shade of purple and laced with green highlights.

'What the?!' Alex roared in shock. 'It didn't even have to charge it!'

'It did…' Marcus replied. Alex looked at him, speechless. 'It just charged it in less than a second.'

'Staraptor, you use hyper beam too!' Date roared, not even squinting in the immense light of Yanmega's hyper beam, which at this hour would look like a calling from the lord if Yanmega fired it from any higher a spot.

Staraptor swivelled round the hyper beam as he trailed towards Yanmega, elegantly dancing around the column of energy as if it wasn't one of the most powerful moves, or something that had been known to do more than just knock Pokémon out in some serious cases.

Within seconds Staraptor was by Yanmega's side, firing an intensely large beam of orange-streaked white-hot energy directly at Yanmega. The collision caused the largest explosion yet: the resulting cloud of smoke spread across the whole stadium and spilled into the neighbouring roads, and even managed to send Drew and Jessica onto their butts before Alex and Marcus could manage to catch them.

'Are you okay?' The two said in striking unison as they knelt down.

'Ugh.' Jessica said, no longer bothering to move her messed up hair from her face.

'Yeah…' Drew replied, slowly standing up and dusting himself off.

'You need to hold my hand now, okay? I don't want you being knocked over again.' Alex said, pulling Drew closer.

'Okay…'

'That was immense. I wonder if he has any Pokémon left to switch out.' Marcus said, dusting his face off as the cloud subsided. The stadium was a complete wreck: there was a massive crater with a smoking Yanmega lying in the centre, and numerous cracks had built up around the site of the crash.

A silence swept the battlefield as Marco and Date both looked at their Pokémon without speaking.

'What's he waiting for?' Drew asked, looking up at Alex innocently.

'I honestly don't know.' Alex replied with confusion. 'Maybe the battle's over and he's taking it in. That Staraptor is one _hell_ of a fighter.'

'Well I don't think we'll be battling here today, guys.' Jessica said, sitting up with a slump. 'Look at the state of the battlefield. More importantly, look at the state of my hair!' Jessica swung her arms around wildly.

'Yanmega, giga impact!' Marco roared, extending his hand forward. All four kids recoiled with shock. Jessica even fell back down when she saw Yanmega rise from the crater with a hardy speed.

'You do the same, Staraptor.' Date said calmly. The two soared towards each other and an aura of transparent white energy surrounded both of them, before turning into a purple aura in a flash and gaining streaks of orange energy running down the aura from the tip at the front. As the two soared towards each other they roared with pride, the roars shaking the battlefield as much as their energy burned at the air around them.

'Mmm…' Emily said sensually, leaning back in her chair. 'That food was so good.'

'Thanks!' Brandon said, astonished. He stared at her and her empty plate before looking back to his and his still half-full plate. 'If I would have known that it'd go down so well I would've cooked you a bigger portion.' Emily's head slowly returned back up and she looked at his plate before smiling shamefully.

'I'm full, it really was great! I'm just a fast eater…' Emily said.

'Okay, that's good to hear. Have you got room for dessert?' Brandon asked, glancing into the kitchen and preparing to stand up.

'Please don't interrupt your dinner for me! I'll eat my dessert with you.' Brandon smiled.

'Okay.'

'So, Emily.' Brandon began, taking another bite. 'How long have you lived here in Yanmana?'

'Only a few years, actually.' Emily replied. 'My family and I moved here from Hoenn about four years ago.'

'How come?'

'Well, my mother was never happy with my father because she claimed that he spent too much time at work, which he did. He worked at the Weather Institute, and was so fascinated in discovering how different weather conditions affected different Pokémon that he practically forgot about the rest of us. But it wasn't until my older brother, Jasper sat him down and told him how his declining interactions with the family was tearing it apart…that he decided to leave the company and take us somewhere something similar could never occur.

'He works at the Espinosa factory, helping to crush the herbs into powders.' Emily said. 'Although he does sometimes have to work long hours now, he is nowhere near as dedicated to this as he was to the Weather Institute, so we're all happy.'

'Wow, that's a heavy story.' Brandon replied.

'I know… How about you? How long have you lived here for?'

'I'm like you; I didn't grow up here either. My family actually came all the way from Kanto a good seven years ago, when I was ten.'

'Wow…why was that?'

'Well, we lived in Saffron city then. It was a lovely, bustling city to live in, but a year before we left, a factory opened up. It was a new one, and its motive was causing rifts between the community, as there were some who were strongly opposed to it and some who supported it.'

'What was their motive?' Brandon turned and stared at Matt, who was now enjoying his dinner with Max in the kitchen.

'They wanted to develop a taming spray.' Brandon said sternly.

'A taming spray?' Emily asked, lost.

'Yes. The idea was that it was a spray that, when used on a wild or otherwise disobeying Pokémon, they would instantly change their ways and obey you without any challenge.'

'What? So no battles needed to catch them or anything?'

'No, none at all. They were even developing small handheld cannons so that you could target Pokémon from a distance. You only needed them to inhale a little bit and they'd be yours.'

'That's disgusting!'

'I agree…and so did my family, loads of the community and eventually, the mayor.' Brandon began fiddling with his knife as he began to reminisce deeply.

'Three months before we left, which was nine months after the factory had opened, the mayor had finally had enough. The factory by this time was releasing harmful fumes as a by-product of the creation of their spray. The mayor used this as a just cause to shut them down, but when he told the head, he was not happy.'

'What did he do?' Emily asked.

'He threatened to wipe out the whole of Saffron with the Pokémon he claimed to have kept in there. The mayor, having a bigger concern to his citizens, decided to back off at that moment, but about a week later he invited him to a private meeting.

'At the meeting, the mayor simply asked the manager to tone down their production of the spray and weaken its dosage too, as the production and the spray could be harmful to Pokémon and people alike in the long run. The manager refused in a fit of rage. Not much else is known about what happened there apart from the fact that he incinerated the mayor with a hyper beam from his Aerodactyl.'

'…Incinerated?' Emily said, shocked.

'Yes, incinerated. The only thing that remained of him was his bad brunette wig.'

'What happened next?' Emily leaned forward in her seat, gripped.

'The gym leader couldn't stand for it. Katrina was known for her cold demeanour, but what she did went down in history.' Brandon said with a cold smile.

'I think I've heard about this!' Emily said. 'Did she attack the factory?'

'Yes. Dead at 8am, she went down and banged on the door, three times. There were no responses, so she announced that she was going to attack. I'm betting they thought that it was an empty threat…but it wasn't. She summoned her trio of Alakazams and had them use a combined psychic attack, eventually lifting off the roof of the factory which had a few fundamental parts connected to it, and hurling it all the way into the sea, just off the coast of Vermillion.'

'Wow… How did the manager react?'

'He fought back. He sent out his Aerodactyl and a battle raged, but it ended with his Aerodactyl out cold.

'With his best fighter gone and his livelihood ruined, the manager lost it and decided to release all of the manufactured spray into the air surrounding the streets of Saffron. There was no immediate effect and so the guy, Andrew Nicivo, lost the will to fight and was arrested. Unfortunately, even though Katrina managed to have her Pokémon trap the gas with psychic and feed it to those immune to it - poison Pokémon - some effects manifested two months later.

'Plants were good at absorbing this gas, too. Not plant-like Pokémon, but inanimate plants. Our family was among a few that had many plants in their houses. The plants had taken this in, and over the course of the two months, converted and released this gradually. It didn't affect us humans one bit but the Pokémon…those affected were rendered with something dreadful.' Brandon looked back to Matt once again and quivered.

'Matt was one of those. The disease lasted him several years…we only managed to cure it by coming across an herbalist travelling through Yanmana. They told us what they thought he could take and luckily, it worked. I shiver at the thought of the others, though.'

Emily took a sip from her drink, unsure of how to console Brandon, but she thought of a way. Her hands slowly found the way to his, pulling it in between and rubbing it gently. Brandon looked up to her with shock before smiling.

Marcus sighed with relief. He had almost been blown to smithereens, along with the stadium and the rest of the gang. If Alex hadn't let out Mimes and ordered it to use Light Screen right now, well, Marcus didn't want to think about it.

Mimes the Mr. Mime stood with his hands up, completely still and focused as he maintained his massive cuboid-shaped light screen. The light screen was glass-like in texture and covered the whole stadium, just about managing to keep the power from the recent explosion within its walls.

'Great job, Yanmega.' Marco said, returning Yanmega to its ball. 'You can dispel the light screen now, Date.'

'I didn't make the light screen.' Date replied with a confused tone, but the light screen began to dissolve from the top down. Mimes sighed when the barrier was finally lowered, rolling his eyes and slumping onto his butt.

'I'm sorry I put you through such a strain, Mimes.' Alex said and returned him to his Pokéball promptly.

'Ah, it was you!' Date said, pointing at Alex from within the protect created by his Tyranitar. The protect popped like a giant bubble as the smoke cleared and Staraptor glided down and landed next to Date, receiving great praise afterwards.

'How long have you kiddies been watching?' Marco asked with an embarrassed smile.

'We just came for the end, it seems.' Marcus replied, staring down at Yanmega. He almost couldn't see it over the sides of the billowing crater that it found itself in. Marcus' frozen gaze prompted Marco to return Yanmega to his Pokéball.

'I hope you weren't after a gym battle,' Marco began, putting his Pokéball away. 'Because that's not how it works here.'

'We know.' Alex replied. 'We simply came to have a battle with each other before we went our separate ways, but ended up getting caught up in your match.'

'But we won't be having that battle, now.' Jessica said with a glare. Date and Marco both scratched their heads in silence.

'I'm sorry, it was my fault. I'm the one who came for an all-out battle.' Date said with shame. 'I could fly you kids to the next town and use their stadium for your battle tomorrow, if you'd like?' Jessica simply scoffed and rolled her eyes, marching out of the stadium.

'I'm sorry for her lack of manners.' Marcus said after she had left. 'Things haven't been going her way, lately.'

'No, I'm sorry.' Date replied with sorrow. 'I knew what destruction my Pokémon could cause. We should have held this elsewhere.'

'It doesn't matter.' Alex said, turning away with Drew. 'It was great seeing that spectacle of a battle.' Date and Marco smiled arrogantly.

'Well, we best be heading back now.' Marcus said as he noticed Alex beginning to leave. 'Good night.'

'Good night.' Date said, watching the three leave. 'Marco,' he turned to look at his former student. 'You've improved.'

'Thanks, Date.' Marco replied.

'I don't see how you managed to, when you don't even use your strong team in your gym battles.'

'I get spare time to train them every now and then.'

'Whoa!' Jessica wailed, falling back on her back. A Honchkrow sped past, its wide wing almost clipping Jessica.

'What happened?' Alex asked, turning the corner and seeing Jessica.

'I almost got ran over! _That's_ what happened!' Jessica growled and stood up angrily before beginning her march back to the Pokémon centre.

_RING! RING RING RING! RING!_ Emily sighed and looked down to her bag, fumbling around in it before pulling out her Pokégear aggressively. She glanced at the screen and then looked back up at Brandon. 'It's my mum.' She said, rolling her eyes and pressing answer, before putting it to her ear.

'Hello, mum.' Emily said sourly.

'Hi, Emily, I'm so sorry to ruin your date.' Emily's mother said. Emily went red, glancing at Brandon. He was oblivious. Good.

'It's not!' Emily yelled, but her mother was elsewhere.

'I'm so sorry but we need you back at home, dearie! ' her mother said.

'Now, mum?'

'Yes, dearie.'

'Why?'

'I'll tell you when you get home. Bye,' Emily's mum hung up before she could reply.

'I'm so sorry,' Emily began, looking up at Brandon slowly. 'But my mum wants me back home, right now.'

'Oh, okay.' Brandon said, trying not to sound too upset.

'I'm so, _so_ sorry. I had a great time, though. I'd love to hang out again!'

'Me too.' Brandon stood up as Emily walked to the door and followed her, grabbing his coat off of the coat stand.

'You don't need to walk me home.' Emily said. 'Max! We have to go!' Max came running with Matt following on all fours, seemingly oblivious to what was happening.

'Are you sure? It's no problem of mine.' Brandon replied.

'You're so sweet but yes, it's absolutely fine. I'll call you, okay?' Emily turned and opened the door as she put her coat on, but then turned back and moved in close to Brandon. She leant forwards and extended onto the tip of her toes before giving him a light peck on the cheek.

'Good night.' Emily said with a sweet smile, taking Max' hand and strolling out.

'Good night.' Brandon replied, adoringly startled. He closed the door as Emily left and turned to look at Matt, who was staring up at him with puppy eyes.

'I'm sorry, Matt. She had to go.' Brandon said as he patted Matt on the head. 'You can share my dessert with me if you want, though!' Matt's face lit up and the two ran to the kitchen.

Emily began walking very quickly down the street, staring at the ocean off to the side. The moonlight hit it at an angle, causing the water to shimmer and reflect the shame of the moon elegantly.

'It's pretty breezy today, isn't it Max?' Emily asked, huddling her coat closer to her body. Max' attention was elsewhere.

'What are you looking at, Max?' Emily asked, but no response, yet again. She stopped and looked at Max, who was staring directly at a nearby house. 'Max!' She pushed Max in the shoulder, causing him to turn and glare at her viciously, before pushing her back with both arms.

Emily wailed and fell back, a vast breeze picking up in between the two as she lost her footing. A second later and a largely imposing black figure soared through, its wing clipping Max and blasting him up into the sky and into the ocean.

'Max!' Emily wailed, squinting as the force of this magnificent Pokémon forced her hair into her eyes.

The Honchkrow stopped in its tracks a few feet above the water, spinning around and flexing its wings. It gazed down at Emily with menacing crimson eyes.

'Oh no…' Emily said, looking up at the Honchkrow. 'I'll help Max first, so come on out, Whiscash!' Emily roared, hurling a Pokéball into the water. Honchkrow however, had no interest in waiting and sped towards Emily.

Emily's Whiscash instantly stopped in its tracks, coming to the surface and firing off an ice beam at the Honchkrow. As the icy blue laser blasted towards Honchkrow, the oversized avian embodiment of death simply tilted to the side, allowing for the attack to shoot past, grazing its side. It didn't even flinch from the cold of it.

'No Whiscash, forget about me! Help Max!' Emily screamed, getting out another Pokéball, but she was simply too slow. A grotesque wing backed with the force of steel slammed into Emily's abdomen, sending her hurling across the ground with a grunt. Her head slumped to the side after she finished scraping through the earth, with Honchkrow soaring after her.

Whiscash fired off a volley of more ice beams but they were dodged all too easily by the Honchkrow, which concluded its act by wrapping its bulky feet around Emily's ankles and soaring off into the sky, dangling her unceremoniously. Whiscash let out a helpless roar as it watched its master being towed away, before turning and diving underwater to help its old friend.


End file.
